Conditioning Experiments

Conditioning experiments are conducted by the narrator’s father on the narrator when the narrator is young. These demonstrate the outlook on fatherhood held by the narrator’s father, in which the narrator’s father considered his son more a research subject than an actual son. Among the conditioning experiments was a practice where the narrator’s crib was lined with things like toy police cars and Richard Nixon campaign buttons. His father had fired a gun and shouted, “Nigger, go back to Africa!”

Spray Painted Lines

Spray painted lines denoting the boundaries of the City of Dickens are created by the narrator. When the City of Dickens is “deleted” to improve surrounding property value, the narrator is angry. In order to physically remind people Dickens exists, he marks the boundaries with white spray paint. The community is both curious and supportive of these efforts...